Grant Willard

Grant Williard, Group Manager, Security Solutions & Strategy, Adobe

Grant WilliardGroup Product Manager, Adobe Security SolutionsAdobe Systems, Incorporated

Grant Williard is the group product manager for Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server and is responsible for DRM product strategy in manufacturing.Williard joined Adobe when it acquired Navisware, which Williard founded 21 years ago.Navisware developed component technology used by leading CAD and PLM developers to facilitate engineering collaboration.Recognizing engineering collaboration in its current form was insecure, Navisware developed DRM enabled CAD.Combined with LiveCycle Policy Server, this technology will provide new capabilities to protect business critical documents in PDF, Microsoft Office and CAD formats, whether stored or delivered inside or outside the firewall.Williard holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from NC State University.

"The key to making Policy Server work is a small authorization program that users must first download and install on their computers," says Adobe's Group Product Manager Grant Willard.
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"One of the few widely reported alleged thefts dealt with a U.S. based automaker losing a design to an automobile company in Asia," says Willard."Cars from the two companies look almost identical and the U.S. company is charging the other with theft of intellectual property."

Willard says the Policy Server can add security features to file formats in Word, Excel, Catia V5R16, and, of course, PDF.Adobe also offers a software-developer's kit so independent software vendors can add such features to their documents.However, notes Willard, PDF has translators for most engineering software such as CAD systems and mathematics programs.